Whats The Best Estimating Software Or Book?

Michaeljp86

My dad wants to get a good estimating program for the computer. He has books on it but thats gets complicated and Im worried the more complicated it is the better chance you have to make a mistake.

Thanks alot

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mdshunk

Lotus 1-2-3 or Excel

cmec

look at jaffee software's power

Tiger

Estimating may be my strongest suit. Try looking at it backwards.

During the day break your job into intelligent pieces. Track how long they take. Do this every day and you'll have actual labor records.

Track your time involvement in getting materials and figure that cost into a material markup.

Now you have your labor and materials.

Figure your overhead from past records and your low-average hours billed per year to calculate OH/hour.

Add it all up with profit for the job price.

I do residential service and may only have 200 task prices. If I don't have a task in my book I can imagine a similar task (which I have a price for) or calculate it quickly from scratch by the above method. The key for me is to check my bids when the job is complete to see that my prices are on track with my profit goals. If I lose on a job I can adjust quickly so I don't lose on it again.

By the way, I use Excel for job tracking. My tasks for bidding are in Quickbooks.

Dave